Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says she no longer has confidence in West Midlands Police (WMP) chief constable Craig Guildford over the intelligence that led to the decision to not allow Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters to attend the fixture against Aston Villa on November 6.
Speaking on Wednesday in the House of Commons, Mahmood withdrew her support for Guildford after further questions were asked of WMP’s intelligence that influenced its request to prevent Maccabi fans from attending the match.
The home secretary does not have the power to dismiss a chief constable, with this instead lying with the local police and crime commissioner. Mahmood said she was “sure” West Midlands police and crime commissioner Simon Foster would “follow all due process as he considers that question (Guildford’s future) for himself”.
A report looking into the intelligence amassed by WMP was established by Sir Andy Cooke, the chief inspector of constabulary, who then handed his findings to Mahmood on Wednesday morning.
Guildford had earlier sent a letter to Dame Karen Bradley, the Home Affairs Committee chairman, apologising for WMP using artificial intelligence (AI) to mistakenly identify that Maccabi had, according to the intelligence report that presented reasoning for not allowing Israeli supporters, “played in the UK against West Ham United in the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage on 9th November 2023, held at the London Stadium.”
This was factually incorrect, with West Ham instead playing Greek side Olympiacos on that date in a different competition, the Europa League. Maccabi instead played against Ukrainian side Zorya Luhansk in Poland.
“In preparation for the force response to the (HM Inspectorate) inquiry into this matter, on Friday afternoon, I became aware that the erroneous result concerning the West Ham v Maccabi Tel Aviv match arose as a result of the use of Microsoft Co Pilot,” he wrote in a letter.
“Both Asst Chief Constable (Mike) O’Hara and I had – up until Friday afternoon – understood that the West Ham match had only been identified through the use of Google. This will be further explained in the additional material being provided to the committee.
Protests took place before the Europa League tie (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
“I would like to offer my profound apology to the committee for this error, both on behalf of myself and that of O’Hara. I had understood and been advised that the match had been identified by way of a Google search in preparation for attending (the Home Affairs Committee).”
Guildford’s departure ends prolonged scrutiny on his position after he and WMP were accused of giving “questionable intelligence” to the affairs committee at the start of December, who were reviewing the decision after significant media and political interest.
On October 16, The Athletic revealed that WMP had requested Maccabi not be allocated tickets for the fixture. The political fallout included condemnation from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who posted on X that it was “the wrong decision” and that the country “will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets”.
Starmer continued his criticism of the decision in Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s questions and confirmed Mahmood would be making a statement.
The day after it was confirmed that away fans would not given a ticket allocation, several people involved in the region’s politics, who were briefed on the situation but did not have permission to speak publicly, told The Athletic that they believed the decision would be reversed. This notion was dispelled once Maccabi said on October 20 that they would not accept any tickets if the decision was reversed.
After the match, West Midlands police and crime commissioner Foster said he would be seeking assurances over the intelligence.
The Athletic has seen a document produced by the WMP detailing the information it presented to the City’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG) meetings on October 7 and 16, the date in which the decision to ban Maccabi fans was made, and on October 23, when that decision was reviewed following significant media and political interest.
The force advised the SAG against approving an away allocation at Villa Park, and UEFA, the competition’s organiser, is expected to follow the recommendation of local authorities. The SAG, which is tasked with advising on safety around the match, is made up of emergency services, the club and other stakeholders.
Sources briefed on discussions, speaking on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to publicly discuss the matter, said the situation was discussed at an emergency meeting between representatives from Birmingham City Council, the SAG, Villa and other relevant parties on October 16.
With WMP clarifying the decision was “based on current intelligence and previous incidents, including violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 UEFA Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam,” December’s affairs committee centred on the intelligence they had received.
Since the match between Maccabi and Villa, Dutch police, who operated the fixture between Ajax and Maccabi the previous year, disputed claims of violence in Amsterdam made by WMP.
A spokesperson for Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema told The Jewish Chronicle in November that she “did not recognise these figures” after WMP described “between 500 and 600 Maccabi supporters deliberately targeting Muslim Communities” in the Netherlands a year earlier.
In a further letter, addressed to Conservative MP Nick Timothy and Lord Austin of Dudley in January, Halsema said “the facts and figures around the events in Amsterdam do not match the claims.”
However, in December Guilford had described discussions with the Amsterdam chief inspector on October 1 as changing “the way the assessment was heading.” He said the chief inspector had spoken to three Dutch commanders who provided information of Maccabi fans’ behaviour in Amsterdam. They had outlined violent clashes involving Maccabi ultra fan groups that were “very well organised and militaristic in how they operated”, attacking members of “the local community, including taxi drivers” as well as tearing down Palestinian flags, with people also thrown in the river. Minutes of this meeting, which took place online, were not recorded by WMP.
On the night of the match against Villa, ten people involved in the protests were arrested.